Stargate Atlantis: Outcast

by Wolfen Moondaughter

I’m of mixed feelings on this one. It had some really great moments in it, but: A) as a friend pointed out over at Mallozzi’s blog, we didn’t really learn much that was earth-shattering about Sheppard, which makes the story a bit of a waste in that department. B) some of the planning and action-adventure stuff was a it dry and bored me (though I will concede that it was a bit more interesting the second time around). C) if we’re going to see old characters again, Bates is about the last person I’d want to see — I’d rather have seen Barrett again. (Admittedly, though, Bates wasn’t bad this time out, save for a little bit at the end. But I’d still rather have seen someone else from the SGC. Vala would have rocked my world!) And d) the Replicator storyline was, frankly, a bit weak (I’ll explain why as we go). If it weren’t for the aforementioned great moments (which included a couple of fantastic twists), this would have been my least-fave ep of the season; as things are, it stands a bit higher in my regard than “The Travelers” and “Missing” (both of which, as you may recall, I still liked well enough). And considering the fact that I was prepared to not like the episode at all, because of the action-oriented plot and lack of the team, it certainly turned out better than I’d expected.

4.15: “Outcast”

John and Ronon are walking down the hall, Ronon expressing confusion as to why the film Blades of Glory didn’t have any fighting in it. John explains that it’s about the “sport” of figure skating, which he’s clearly not fond of. (Heeeyyyy, I like figure skating! *Pout* I’d much rather watch it than football any day of the week! Ah well, it’s a funny bit, all the same.) “Your planet’s weird,” Ronon tells John. (Nice bit of foreshadowing, seeing as Ronon’s about to get another first-hand glance!) As they’re about to enter a room (the gym?), Sam stops John; Ronon disappears. Sam informs John that his father has passed away. (While I agree that Sam should have taken him somewhere private to reveal such personal news, I figure production was prohibitive of such. They couldn’t have the show open with him in her office, having been called there — then Ronon wouldn’t have been there for the light opening, and bad news always has more of an impact when revealed after levity. They couldn’t change scenes — that would have cost too much. But I do think they should have had Ronon and Sheppard sparring in the gym — then Sam could have closed the door. Anyway, the look on John’s face is, of course, heartbreaking in its turmoil; he obviously is shocked but uncertain of how he actually feels about this loss. As I’ve said before, Flanigan is masterful when it comes to facial expressions.)

We see an unknown establishment, where someone is doing a global search for something on a computer; the seeker is a woman. She looks at a newspaper article that the computer pulls up; it’s on the death of John’s father, who apparently was a “utilities mogul”. (Huh. Interesting; and here I’d always assumed he was a career-military man himself). She walks over to a printer, passing a table full of photos and more articles. There are photos of John and Ronon (from “Miller’s Crossing”) on it.

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We see John packing a duffer bag when Rodney walks into the colonel’s quarters, haltingly offering his condolences. (I cannot stop staring at John’s bed as McKay walks towards it — it’s so small and low to the ground — it only comes up to their knees and looks like it’s just two and a half feet wide!) Rodney asks John if he’s okay, his own awkwardness momentarily forgotten; John assures him that he is, and doesn’t even sound upset at being asked. (Awwww. In case it wasn’t patently obvious, this is my fave scene in the ep, as well as one of my faves of the season.) Rodney reveals that he had requested to accompany John, but it turns out that he can’t: the EM field-generator on a certain planet (the one from “Childhood’s End”) needs repairs. (Hmm. I’m deliriously happy that Rodney really wanted to go with and be supportive, and I’m very glad for this explanation as to why he can’t while Ronon does go, but isn’t that a little … strange? Is it common for soldiers who return home for funerals to have someone come with them? Also, why can’t Radek do the repairs? Well, maybe he flat out refuses to go back there, after how he was treated on that planet in “Critical Mass”; they painted war-paint on him and basically ran him ragged ….) “Is that the one with all the kids?” John asks. Rodney confirms it, looking decidedly unhappy with the prospect, saying he’d get out of it if he could, but the kids need the device to protect them from the Wraith. (So we can believe that McKay really would rather go with John, he’s not just making excuses. Also, yay for Rodney caring about the kids’ welfare!) John tells him not to worry about it. There’s a (beautiful) moment of very awkward silence, before Rodney tells John, “If you want to talk …” (He’s clearly not thrilled with the idea but wants to be a good friend, bless him.) John says his name, a little impatiently, then, after a long pause in which he seems to realise that Rodney’s just trying to be helpful, gives a heartfelt, “I’m fine.” Rodney nods, giving him a look that says he’s not buying it (and that also seems disappointed), then reluctantly turns to leave, clearly wanting to say or do more but not knowing what. (John looks like he needs a hug, but I’m guessing that’s the last thing in the world that he wants.)

(I wonder just how Rodney found out in the first place — that doesn’t seem like something Sam would mention to him, or anyone else. Well, maybe she told him that John was going home for a few days, and he wheedled it out of her or hacked into her email. Or maybe Ronon was just in the other room and heard what was said — he already gossiped a bit at the end of “Quarantine”, and I could see him thinking that this was some thing Rodney and Teyla ought to know. Speaking of which, I’ve seen complaints about the lack of Teyla. I’m sure it’s safe to assume that she offered her condolences off-screen; Joe Mallozzi explained that they had to keep her out of a few episodes because of the pregnancy. Granted, they could have mentioned her expressing those condolences, but there’s only so much time in an ep, and I don’t think a mention was really necessary, even if it would have been welcome.)

We see John waiting in front of the ‘Gate. (I can’t help but feel like he’s waaaay to close to it. Seeing the “kawoosh” come at me while standing in that spot would be terrifying!) As he waits, Ronon comes to stand beside him, wearing a t-shirt. “Where you goin?” John asks. “With you,” Ronon tells him matter-of-factly. We hear the kawoosh and see the shimmer of the event horizon play across them. Ronon walks towards it, a puzzled John following a few beats after. (This scene is a very, very close second-fave for the ep. And really, for the kind of guy John is, Ronon’s stoicism is probably more of a comfort — Rodney would just make John and himself both uncomfortable …. Ooh, hey, there’s Lorne in the background! Yay, Lorne!)

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The funeral is at a pretty nice estate (not Bruce Wayne-nice, but definitely upper-crust). Ronon remarks on the volume of people; Sheppard explains that his father was well-connected. A man named Dave approaches them, shaking hands with John and remarking that he wasn’t sure John would make it; apparently he’s sent messages to Peterson (Air Force Base) that John doesn’t seem to have received. (I.e., he’s ticked that John hasn’t responded to other messages. Of course, it’s entirely possible that John hasn’t gotten those messages, considering where he’s posted, but I’m thinking that Dave is right, and John’s just ignored them.) Dave looks at Ronon; John introduces the men, revealing that Dave is his brother. (They obviously aren’t close if all they’re going to do is shake hands! I must admit to being shocked to learn that John has a brother in the first place — I’d always assumed he was an only child, and that his parents were either dead or had disowned him. For that matter, we never do learn about his mother — I assume that she is dead, since there was no mention of her whatsoever. The lack of a mother to raise him could go a long way to explain why John — and his brother — are uncomfortable with hugging, growing up raised by a high-society male, as they tend to be very reserved and stand-offish, it seems.) Dave asks, skeptically, if John and Ronon work together in the Air Force. (Yeah, Ronon’s dreads aren’t exactly regulation. Then again, John’s hair doesn’t really seem to be either. Of course, the McSheppy part of me can’t help but think that Dave is wondering if Ronon is John’s lover; you have to admit that it’s a bit odd to bring a coworker to your father’s funeral, especially if you haven’t even talked to the man in years! Happily, even non-slash-lovin’ fans have told me that they, too, thought Dave was wondering if Ronon was John’s boyfriend.) John explains that he’s a civilian contractor. “Right,” Dave says, in a tone that says he doesn’t believe John. (Fifth fave scene of the ep — the third and the fourth are coming up. Aside from the slashy explanation, though, what reason is there for his skepticism, I wonder? It seems like he doesn’t believe John is really in the military! Surely he doesn’t suspect the truth, so what does he think John’s been doing all this time?) John looks very unhappy. Dave says that they need to talk later, and excuses himself.

As Dave walks off, we see the woman from earlier — the one with the articles and the pictures of our boys — staring in our boys’ direction. (Nice framing!) For those who may not have noticed her in the distance, we get an up-close shot to confirm her identity.

John walks into the room with a closed casket, and comes to stand before it. He buttons up his suit. (Very nice touch, showing us how his father intimidates him even in death — and when he’s out-of-sight!) John says nothing. (We could have gotten some maudlin, sappy apology, but really, this suits John better.) Behind him, we see Ronon start to come in; the Satedan quickly thinks better of it and walks away. (I love how in-tune he is with John’s needs here!)

Ronon finds himself at a buffet table, and happily piles on the food. He pauses, noticing two people stare at him, a man and a woman. “This is free, right?” he asks tentatively. (*Dies* That was too, too perfect, Momoa! Incidentally, the man was the winner of the “Get in the Gate” contest. I wonder if he was given a choice of what episode to appear in — I would have preferred being in the court scene in “Harmony”, myself ….) The woman assures him that it is; “Excellent,” he says, gathering more food from around the table, stuffing something into his mouth as he finally departs in search of Sheppard. (Thus ends my fourth fave scene of the ep.)

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Ronon (being far more conversational than I can ever remember him being) points the food out to Sheppard (who assures him that he’s good — maybe Ronon’s being a little much much like Rodney all of the sudden), then asks if the house behind them is the one John was raised in. “One of them,” John replies. (I know Mallozzi says he always saw John as Richie Rich, but to me, this is all a bit of a shock — I pegged John as upper-middle class at best. Then again, I also pegged him as an Army brat — I assumed part of the falling out with his dad was him joining the Air Force instead ….) “It’s niiice,” Ronon tells him, impressed. John says he couldn’t wait to get out of there, though, going on to say that his father’s idea of teen rebellion was his choosing Stanford over Harvard, explaining that his father had had his life planned out for him since he was 14. (Huh. And here I’d assumed John had gone straight into the Air Force after high school! Anyway, it seems John is indeed book-smart, and not just some intuitive Mensa-level math genius. Unless he was only giving that as an example, and didn’t actually go to Stanford — but you’d think that, if he were trying to make a point about his history, he’d use an example from his actual experience …. Also note: John’s squinting a lot here, making it evident that he’s missing his shades but doesn’t feel it would be appropriate to wear them here. Another nice touch!) Ronon asks what they’re supposed to do now. (Did they not have anything like funerals on Sateda, I wonder?) John says people drink, eat, and talk; “They don’t have anything to say, but they talk,” he elaborates somewhat bitterly. Seeing Dave chat with others, Ronon remarks that the man seems to be handling things well. “That’s what he does; he handles things,” John replies. (Hmm. I wonder what the story is there; did Dave try to micromanage John’s life too, like their dad? Is John bitter because his brother was seen as the responsible one and he was not?) Ronon asks why John never mentioned him before. “It’s complicated,” John replies, his typical answer for whenever he doesn’t want to talk about something; Ronon takes the hint and doesn’t press for clarification. (Another instance where it’s good that Rodney’s not there.)

A woman approaches; John spots her and quickly turns away, hanging his head. “I told you I had an ex-wife, right?” he asks Ronon, who confirms that he did (in “Sunday”). She reaches them, and they exchange greetings; John’s very stiff and awkward as he tells her that he didn’t expect to see her. She hugs him (but he doesn’t return it), offering her condolences. He introduces her to Ronon. We learn that she’s recently been promoted to the status of director in Homeland Security. (Ahhh, so she’s involved with the government too. Is that how they met?) He asks, haltingly, how things are with “Greg”; “Grant,” she corrects him. After an awkward pause, she says that Grant would have been there (which frankly would have been poor taste, unless he were well-acquainted with Sheppard’s father), but that he was trying a case in Phoenix. (A lawyer, then, not another government person like her.) After a bit more awkwardness, she tells John that his father was always very good to her (hence her being there). John replies, “Well, in his mind, marrying you was probably the best thing I ever did,” insinuating that he strongly disagrees. (While I’m fairly certain it was wholly unintentional on the part of the writers that it could be seen this way, it’s becoming easier and easier to imagine that John’s falling out with his father — and brother — stemmed at least partially from John being bi. Of course his father would love Nancy, then — he’d be ecstatic that his son settled down with a woman! And it could explain Dave’s seeming skepticism over John’s military life. Whether the writers meant it to be seen this way or not, canon now has a perfect “in” for John Sheppard to be bi! Of course, they will never run with it, but it’s nice to know it’s there ….) Nancy can take a hint; she says her goodbyes, to Ronon as well, who has gone off a ways to give them some privacy. (That’s the second time this ep that he’s disappeared without me realizing he’s gone at first!)

John and Ronon go to get a drink at the wet bar when the woman who had watched them earlier approaches them. Making it clear that she knows both of them, she introduces herself as Ava Dixon, saying that she worked for Henry Wallace. When John feigns ignorance (or perhaps he really doesn’t remember), she insists that she doesn’t have time for games, and starts to talk about McKay’s abduction and alien tech. John round on her, getting close, demanding to know who she is. She insists that they need to talk — but not there. As they leave, John spots his brother; he tosses Ronon the keys, telling him to take the woman to the car, and turns to face his brother.

He tells Dave that something work-related has come up. Dave is derisive as he asks if it’s top secret or national security-related. (Dude, you know that your ex-sister-in-law works for Homeland Security!! Why is it so hard for you to believe that your brother may indeed have a job where he cannot tell you what he’s doing and may have business that requires his immediate attention? Terrorists don’t take a day off when their enemies have a funeral!) John says it’s something like that; Dave shakes his head, saying, in disgusted tones, that this is typical of John. “If you’ve got somethin’ to say, just say it,” John tells him. Dave asks what John’s level of expectations is; John doesn’t know what he means. Dave asks if John is going to challenge the will. John looks like Dave punched him in the gut. Dave goes on to remark that, while he doesn’t know what the will says, he can guess. Floored (and hurt, I’d wager), John says, “That’s what you want to talk about — you want to talk about money?” Dave insists that it’s not a stretch to think so when John’s been gone so long.

(Okay, while I think this is a great emotional scene — third fave in the ep, in fact — this makes no sense to me. Others say they can understand Dave’s position, but I can’t see where he would get an idea like this. Were I in his shoes, I would simply assume, if my brother were like John, that he had come out of guilt over not having mended fences before our father’s death. If John had been the type to only come around when he needed money, that would be one thing, but I imagine John never came around at all. John’s choosing to go to Stanford or join the military is hardly grounds to see him as irresponsible; we know that he’s actually very responsible, only reckless when it comes to doing things to save other people’s lives. I cannot imagine that he’s ever done anything to warrant being thought of as his brother suggests here. This begs the question, is this something like what John said in Harmony — the things we hate about others is what we really hate about ourselves. Is his brother the money-grubber, and he just assumes the same of John? Another friend of mine brought up an interesting possibility: she suggested that perhaps John was treated like the golden child in the family while his brother had to struggle. Dave could feel like John’s gotten the all the things Dave himself had wanted from their father. While John struggled to get out from his father’s notice and live his own life, perhaps Dave would have given anything to have it. And since he went into the family business and John didn’t — i.e., Dave “handled” things — he could be afraid that John was going to try to take the last of their father’s gifts from him, gifts he would feel he earned and John did not. Well, true or not, it’s clear that Dave doesn’t know his brother at all. I wonder how much — or how little — they talked in the other thirty-something years they’ve known each other, before John left for Atlantis?)

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John tells Dave (in his patented I’m being nice and polite but actually, I’m so pissed I’m seeing red manner) that he has nothing to worry about and walks away. Dave stops him, insisting (in somewhat holier-than-thou tones) that if he has the wrong impression of John, it’s not his fault — John stayed away while he stayed and looked after the business and their father. (Handler, indeed. But who said either one of them had to take over the business or look after their dad? It was their father’s responsibility to make sure those things were taken care of, and if they weren’t, oh well. No one held a gun to Dave’s head. Perhaps he even enjoyed being the martyr ….) Getting emotional but managing to keep himself composed, John says he assumed that was what their father wanted. Dave, sounding mystified now, assures him that their father always regretted their falling-out, and walks away. John is clearly unsettled by this new bit of information.

Ava tells John that she would have contacted them sooner, but that John was a hard man to find. (Okay, so she doesn’t know about Atlantis, even if she knows about the alien tech.) She launches into a story about how she’s been working as an assistant for a Dr Poole, in a division of Wallace’s company, on a project codenamed “Archetype”. Explaining that she didn’t learn about the abduction until much later, she talks about the advancements they were making in nano-tech; they reached a point where they could not just repair a system, but create an entirely new, self-sustaining one. Via flashback, we see her in a lab with Poole — and a man with eyes that start out silver. Ronon figures out what she means: “They built a Replicator.” (Hey, his trying to learn science is paying off! Once upon a time, he would have just given her a blank look at all the techno-babble!) She hedges, saying that “self-replicating isn’t one if its primary directives, but … yes.” (So … it can replicate, but it’s not likely to? What’s the criteria for when it will?) John says that there’s no way they had authorization to do that. (Like that stopped Wallace, John?) She says Poole told her that the project was “being funded at the highest levels she believed him because, as her parents died when she was very young, he was like a father to her.

As Ava continues her story, we see a flashback of the scene she describes. Poole comes in, distressed, and tells her that there’s been a security breach; they need to shut everything down. She says she doesn’t understand; he snaps that he hasn’t got time to explain. As the doctor grabs things and starts throwing switches, she tells us, via voiceover, that she found out later that he was trying to get rid of the evidence of his work before the IOA found it. The doctor approaches the Replicator with a tablet, pressing buttons, then pauses to apologise. As he fusses with the tablet again, the Replicator exchanges a disbelieving look with Ava (apparently he’s intelligent enough to infer things), then grabs Poole and throws him across the room. Ava activates the alarm while it escapes from the lab. He runs into two guards and kills them; Ava fears it may kill again, if threatened. (Now what science-minded man working in robotics doesn’t know about the Three Laws?? What kind of idiot would program the thing to defend itself at all costs, even if it meant harming the people it’s supposed to be working with? And if you’re not going to at least program the law about not harming humans into it, why bother giving it a sense of self-preservation? This is a big part of why this storyline was so weak, in my eyes.) The Replicator has been loose on earth for three weeks now, and they’ve been unable to track it. (I thought, from the first scene we saw Ava in, that she would be evil or something, but she seems quite nice and honest — I like her, the same way I liked Fran — which, I suppose, should have been a sort of foreshadowing in its own right ….)

Ronon, Sheppard, and a strike team burst into Poole’s lab, cuffing him. He recognises them. Upon learning that Ava has betrayed him, he insists to her, pleadingly, that he had the situation under control. (So … does this mean he somehow hid the deaths of the guards? How come the IOA hadn’t apprehended him already?) Sheppard begs to differ, considering the fact hat the thing’s killed two people already. Poole protests that the Replicator only did it in self-defense, swearing that it won’t harm anyone if it’s not threatened. (“If” being the key word, mister!) Sheppard assures him that they’re not going to give it a chance to prove it. He hands Ava a small device that beeps, and slips one with a glowing red light into Poole’s pocket. They’re beamed aboard the Apollo. (I’ll never get tired of that! In fact, they need to put that tech on the ‘jumpers — or better yet, put the Wraith’s dart beaming tech on them, so that they can beam up oodles of people into the buffer, in order to do mass evacuations when necessary!)

Sheppard interrogates Poole, asking for the access codes for the scientist’s data. He refuses. Sheppard insists that they will crack it eventually; Poole smugly suggests it would be next to impossible, considering how it’s encrypted. He never gave Ava the code, either. He tells Sheppard that he will only cooperate if he’s assured that he’s allowed to be the one to bring the Replicator in; Sheppard refuses. Poole insists that it’s an invaluable piece of equipment (too valuable to just destroy outright, I assume he means). “You’ve had your chance — now it’s my turn,” Sheppard says (his turn to catch it, I assume — the dialogue here’s a bit odd and indirect), asking if the man is going to help them track it or not. Ava volunteers instead; when Richard protests, she points out that the Replicator is all alone, and isn’t programmed to deal with social interaction; she asks what will happen if the Replicator is cornered or frightened. (Why would it have those reactions in the first place? A simple explanation of them having been running simulations with algorithms based on known soldier reactions, or something, would have made me a lot more accepting of this plot point. As it stands, it’s like having a storyline where toasters are running around killing people: tell me why the normally innocuous appliance would be doing anything other than toast, and don’t assume the fact that they are killing machines is a given. All we know about this thing at the moment is that it’s a collection of nanites that can form the appearance of a man, that he’s not likely to replicate, and that he’s not programmed for social interaction. But isn’t recognizing that someone is going to hurt you a form of social cue?) Looking unhappy, Poole has no rebuttal.

Ronon and Sheppard are walking down a corridor in the Apollo when they’re stopped by (the former Sargeant) Bates. Sheppard explains to Ronon that Bates served in Atlantis until he was attacked by a Wraith. (John is rather friendly to the guy overall, aside from some slight ribbing over the beating the man took. No mention is made of how the man repeatedly, in a most hostile fashion, accused Teyla and the Athosians of selling Atlantis out to the Wraith. Granted, Bates had grounds for his suspicions but no evidence, only conjecture. He could have been far more civil about it than he was — and more apologetic, after. I kind of wish Ronon recognised the name and took Bates to task over it.) Bates reveals that he’s now with a division of the IOA that deals with “operational threats on Earth”. After John updates him on the status of the interrogation, Bates asks if there’s a way they can track the Replicator without Poole; John says he’s “got a guy working on it.”

The guy is (a very sunburned) Dr Lee (yay!), whose first vacation in three years has been interrupted; understandably, he is quite vexed, especially at missing all the bikini-clad babes. (I hope his wife didn’t notice him drooling over said babes, heheheh ….) With Ava’s help, he comes up with a means to track the Replicator. Ava is impressed with the tech, asking if it’s alien. All the men around her grow wary; she apologises, saying she forgot that she’s not supposed to know anything about that. (You’re sitting in a spaceship, after having been beamed aboard; I think it’s a little late to be worrying about that. Don’t worry, they’re have a thousand-page non-disclosure agreement for you to sign before they let you leave their sight again, I’m sure. *Snicker*) Lee is able to pinpoint the Replicator to within a five-block radius. (I’m puzzled as to why it can’t be narrowed down more exactly, if he was able to pinpoint it at all.) Sheppard orders the area blocked off; Bates says he’ll call it a chemical spill. (Now, whenever I encounter one of those, I am going to think there’s a Replicator on the loose. *Snicker*) Sheppard asks Ava about the Replicators’ capabilities are; she tells him that it’s pretty much got super-strength, speed, and agility, but doesn’t know anything about what kind of tactics it would use or whether it’s had military training.

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John’s back in the interrogation room, sounding very pissy as he tells Poole that any help the man might render can only work in the man’s favour. Poole’s not buying it; he’s convinced that they’re going to lock him away in Area 51, never to bee seen again. John suggests that the info he gives could keep Ava out of trouble. Poole is outraged; she’s innocent. John insists it doesn’t matter. (I don’t for one minute believe that John actually would let Ava take the fall, but that has everything to do with knowing his character and nothing to do with the show he’s putting on here: he does a damn good job of convincing Poole!)

We see Sheppard, Ronon, Bates, Pool, and a strike team gathered outside, talking strategy for pursuing the Replicator. (And I’m yawning a bit throughout most of this sequence. To be fair, though, it’s less yawn-worthy than I typically find these kinds of scenes in military stories.) Poole says that the Replicator is in defense mode, and will hide far away from people; Bates suggests that an abandoned warehouse in the area is their best bet for where it’s hiding. Poole informs them that their anti-Replicator weaponry won’t work on it. He adds that its ability to repair itself will be limited, seeing as it doesn’t have the base material necessary to do so; if they insist on damaging it, conventional weapons should to the trick. He also says that the Replicator will try to evade, and only counter-attack as a last resort. (Tell that to the guards he killed!) Sheppard tells everyone to split into teams of two but to not engage the Replicator; once one of them locates the machine, they’ll all gather and coral the Replicator into a corner, and bombard him with everything they’ve got. As they get ready to go, someone hands Ronon a rifle; Ronon holds up his blaster, saying he’s good. (And thus, we are assured that he does indeed have his blaster with him.) He asks Sheppard how he’s doing. Sheppard shrugs. “It’s been one hell of a week,” Ronon remarks. “Yeah,” Sheppard half-laughs. (Okay, so maybe I have a sixth fave scene.)

Sheppard and Ronon are teamed up of course, and Bates is with Poole. (Ronon looks like he’s wearing a thin bullet-proof vest instead of a tac vest. It looks really good on him, too …) Bates reports that he’s spotted the Replicator; while Bates is on the radio, Poole grabs a two-by-four and clobbers Bates. Poole goes into the warehouse and finds the Replicator; he tells it that it must come with him, and that he’ll do what he can to convince everyone not to harm it. (After you tried to shut it off in the first place, Doc, why should it believe you? I’m also wondering at this point what his motive is for keeping it “alive” when it’s not like he could keep working on it anyway, even if he ran off with it — how could he present his work to the world? Thankfully, John answers my question later.) The Replicator asks Poole how he found it; Poole explains how its nanites give off a signal that they were able to track. He tells it that it must self-deactivate, pointing out that it’s done it before, and that he’s always been there to bring it back online. (If that’s true, why did it spaz in the first place? Unless you were intending to make its nanites lose their cohesion — which would have been an awful mess to clean up in a short mount of time ….) When he gets close enough, the Replicator crushes his throat, apologising as it does so. (Okay, it has remorse but it kills him anyway, despite his not having a weapon if any kind, not even a tablet? Poole, you were a terrible programmer!) Sheppard and Ronon find Bates, tell the Apollo to beam him up, then go looking for Poole and find him dead.

Sheppard radios Lee on the Apollo, informing him — and a horrified Ava — that Poole has been killed and asking if lee can track the Replicator. Lee starts to do so, when the signal is suddenly lost. (Nice work, Poole! Thanks to you, the Replicator figured out how to block the signal!) Sheppard and Ronon go hunting it; they hear shots and find two men down, one of them dead. The one that’s still living explains that it hit them before they even knew it was there. Other men arrive; Sheppard has them take care of the fallen. “So much for evasion,” he remarks. Ronon figures that the Replicator knows it’s trapped, and is desperate. Sheppard orders his men to form a defensive perimeter, saying that he and Ronon are going to flush it out.

They split up (and things get marginally more interesting). Sheppard finds it, and shoots; a silver hole forms in its leg. It quickly repairs itself, but the skin stays silver. (It’s kind of like the T-1000 in Terminator 2! Cool! Will it be as hard to kill?) Sheppard fires again and misses; he radios Ronon with it’s heading, and the Satedan gives chase. (I love the music playing here!) The Replicator loses Ronon, only to run smack into Sheppard’s line of fire. When the bullets hit, nanites spray off. More running. John chases the Replicator along a pier; Ronon pops up ahead. Trapped, the Replicator starts climbing a series of platforms; other members of the strike team have shown up, and everyone’s firing on it. Ronon climbs after it. (I can’t stop thinking about Cameron’s line in SG-1’s “Avalon, Part 1″, where he reminds Teal’c that “Bullets bounce!”; though I know perfectly well that Ronon won’t get hit, I can’t help cringing, feeling like he could any second.) We can faintly hear Sheppard tell his men to hold their fire as Ronon draws near. The Replicator jumps into the water. Ronon and John watch the water, but (of course) it doesn’t come up. (Uh, guys? It doesn’t need to breathe and it’s made if metal! It’s gonna just walk on the bottom, a la the cursed pirate skeletons in Pirates of the Caribbean!) Later that evening they’re still at the pier; Bates informs them that their men have searched the area twice with no sign, and that Lee hasn’t been able to pick up a signal, adding that they figure the Replicator has found a way to mask it.

They return to the Apollo, where Lee reports that boosting the sensor’s sensitivity 200% hasn’t helped, and that his decryption program for Poole’s data files is working slowly, so he may have to tweak it. John tells him to concentrate on the decryption. Lee points out that there may not even be anything in the data that can help them. Sheppard explains that he thinks the whole situation is fishy. He figures that the only reason Poole would be so insistent on saving it when he was going to prison was because he had a buyer who could pull the strings to get him out, so long as he produced the goods. Bates conjectures that the buy is either military or ex-military, a colonel or lower, not too high-profile but who knows the ins and outs of how they work, and can work outside of regular IOA channels, so that they can’t track them.

Sheppard looks to Nancy for help. As they meet in the park, she quips that seeing him twice in two days is a surprise, since she hardly saw him that often when they were married. Hesitant, he tells her that he needs her to get him whatever info she can on Project Archetype. She’s floored that he would ask her to risk her job; chagrined, he says he wouldn’t ask her if it wasn’t important. She asks what the project is about. Knowing it sounds bad, he cringes as he says that he can’t tell her. She says that’s typical. (She’s being very reasonable, and really? I can’t blame her for being upset. And here I had totally expected her to be a bitch. Well, okay, I guess I wanted her to be one. And yet, I kinda like her. Not that I want to see them together, though — they just don’t have any romantic chemistry, to me, only platonic.) John asks what that’s supposed to mean; she points out that she hasn’t even seen him in four years, and now he wants her to put her career on the line but won’t tell her why. He concedes that it “sounds a little crappy.” (*Snicker*) She says she wishes he’d realised that when they were married. She talks about all the times when he’d gotten phone calls and just run out in the middle of the night, no explanation or apology, and she had no idea where he was — he could have been flying missions in Somalia, for all she knew. (Well, okay, now I can get aggravated at her — if she works for Homeland Security, she should understand that it was all a part of his job. I do find this getting calls and running off in the middle of the night thing odd, though — are any military, even special ops, typically “on call”? I would think they would only be on-duty when working out of a base! She makes him sound like Batman!) He tells her that’s ridiculous: he’s never been to Somalia. “North Korea, then,” she says dryly, knowing the way his mind works. “Well, there’s a big difference,” he says. (*Snicker*) She lifts a brow; he ducks his head. She tells him softly that she put up with his secrets then, but doesn’t have to now. (And in this, she redeems herself; clearly she realised that she wasn’t cut out to have a marriage where she didn’t know what was going on with her husband and ended it, rather than giving him unreasonable ultimatums that conflicted with his career. I think that was the right thing for both of them ….)

Later, John finds Ava packing up some of Poole’s personal belongings at the lab. John offers his condolences. Ava fears Poole died thinking she betrayed him. He says she doesn’t know that; she insists the project meant everything to Poole. John suggests that maybe she meant something to him too. (Oooh, awesome foreshadowing in hindsight!) “You never know what people are thinkin’,” he tells her. “Even those you’re closest to?” she asks. “Especially those,” he says wistfully. (Doubtless, he’s thinking of how he and Dave don’t know each other anymore.) He’s silent a long moment. She gets his attention again, and he asks her if anyone else knew about the project, like someone from the company checking on their progress. She says no, adding that only she and Poole even had access to the lab. He asks if Poole was in contact with anyone outside the lab; not that she knew of. John goes to leave, but she stops him, asking how the sensor is coming along. He says it’s not, adding that Lee’s working on decrypting the files. Frowning in confusions, she says she thought that was impossible. Grunting (NeanderJohn is back!), he says, “Guess not.” he leaves, and she turns back to her packing, looking unhappy. (Suddenly, I have a sinking feeling that she’s not so innocent after all.) John returns to the Apollo, where Lee reveals that he’s managed to open some of the files — and has discovered that Ava died a year ago. (And the realisation that she, too, is a Replicator hits like a tonne of bricks! Great twist! Now I’m wondering if the male Replicator is based on anyone else Poole loved — a son, maybe?)

Sheppard, Ronon, and Bates burst into to the lab; a guard is unconscious, and Ava has left a note of apology. They return to the Apollo, where Lee confirms that Ava is indeed a Replicator; he’s found blueprints for both male and female models. Sheppard asks about the sensors; Lee says Ava is masking her signal just like the other. Bates asks why she came to them in the first place when she could have kept quiet. Lee points out that she didn’t kill the guard, conjecturing that she was made as a socially-interactive model, while the other was meant for military use. She was made to replace Ava, and has empathy. (Nice lantern. If you don’t know what I mean, go watch the SG-1 ep “200″.) Bates asks if that means she can’t kill; Lee says she’s just less likely (another nice bit of lantern-hanging). John asks if there’s anything else useful in the files; not so far, Lee tells him. Then John gets called away by a message being relayed through Peterson.

He meets Nancy in a car, where she hands him a jump drive with everything she could find on Archetype. She remarks that “It’s not much, but whatever it is, no one will touch it with a ten-foot pole.” He tells her that he owes her one; she assures him that he does. She then muses on how it used to drive her crazy that John kept secrets from her, but now she’s finding Grant looking at her the same way she once looked at John. (Glad to see she’s admitting that she can see his side of it now! On another note, in keeping with what I mentioned earlier about the slashy subtext, the John keeping secrets from her and driving her crazy thing could be read as Nancy having suspected John of cheating on her with male lovers when he kept disappearing on her. That certainly would have been something to have a falling-out with his dad over! *Grin*) John looks up slowly at her (looking … worried? Disbelieving?). She tells him that she dug around for info on him, too; he says that that’s probably not such a good idea. She agrees; she’s never seen walls go up around info so quickly before. She conjectures that he’s in something big and dangerous, telling him that she just wants him to be careful. (Awww. I hope they become good friends again!) He tries to shrug it off with a “Well, you know me.” “Yeah, that’s the problem,” she admits sadly. She says goodbye and leaves.

Back on the Apollo, Lee sifts through the data Nancy gathered, saying that she’s right, it’s all useless so far. Then he stumbles on a shipping bill for pre-assembled masonry panels to be delivered to a warehouse in Redding; he explains that “pre-assembled masonry panels” was a code phrase for neutronium, the base elements from which nanites are made (as we learned in “BAMSR”). Sheppard and Lee figure that’s where the Replicator has gone, to repair himself. “Assuming he knows where it is,” Bates points out. (That’s it, from now on, Bates is “Lantern Boi”!) Lee points out that it’s all they have to go on; Bates says he’ll set up a stake-out at the warehouse. Ronon remarks on the importance of taking the Replicator down this time; they won’t get another shot. Lee points out that it won’t be easy, musing that, in the movies, they would use a vat of molten steel (Terminator 2!) or a volcano. “What the hell’s he talking about?” Ronon asks. (Aha! Another “What” from Ronon! I haven’t been paying attention to that of late; bad Wolfie, no biscuit!) “That’s a really good idea,” John says thoughtfully, and hurries off, leaving Ronon and Lee to chime “It is?” in tandem. (*Snicker*)

[nms:Stargate Atlantis,1,5]

At the warehouse, Sheppard, Ronon, and two others lie in wait. The Apollo radios John to tell him that they’re ready. Ronon is skeptical that the Replicator will even show. (Oooh, what happened, Mr This is our last chance to take him down? Such an impatient boy!) John replies that the IOA spotted him; Ronon counters that the Replicator may have spotted the IOA as well. The Replicator drops down, killing the two guys that were with them. (Killing two at a time by neck-breaking is getting to be a signature move for this guy!) John and Ronon attack; he knocks Ronon across the room (*gasp*) then, ignoring Sheppard’s gunfire, knocks John across to the other side. He starts to strangle John (lucky he does that instead of just breaking his neck, like he did the others!)

Ava shows up, and gets into a (kick ass!!) fight with her male counterpart. (Maybe she got some military training too?) Ronon stirs; when the male knocks Ava down, Ronon sneaks up behind him and attacks. (Bare-handed! Ronon, don’t be an idiot — surely you could have grabbed a gun!) as the Replicator slams Ronon against the wall, John grabs … a switchblade?? He shoves it in the Replicator ; we see it has a blinking red light on the handle. (Oh, like the transporter John gave Poole!) The Replicator drops Ronon and faces John; John gives the signal and the Replicator is transported away. Ava gets to her feet and asks where John sent him. “Lower Earth orbit, ” John replies, wincing in pain. “I know from experience, re-entries a bitch. (Hah! Knows it from more than one mission, too! “The Ark” and “Lifeline”, at least ….) We see the Replicator get beamed into and disintegrate within Earth’s atmosphere.

Back on the Apollo, John, Ronon, Bates, and Lee discuss Ava’s fate as they watch her on a monitor; she’s sitting at the table in the interrogation room. Bates says that the IOA won’t just let her go; Ronon points out that she wouldn’t even be in custody if she hadn’t helped them. Bates shrugs it off, saying she’s just a machine. (Argh! There he goes again, being an ass!) Lee counters that we’re all just machines. (Yay, Lee!) Ronon suggests they take her to a planet with no people; John says that’s not much of a reward. Bates points out that “the IOA would never let her leave earth anyway.” Lee suggests she could work at the SGC. Bates argues that she a security threat; Lee insists that they don’t know that. (True, Lee, but if they didn’t fear it, it wouldn’t be an issue where she goes, now would it?) Sheppard agrees with Bates, saying that there’s no escaping the fact that she’s a Replicator. (Uh, except maybe the fact that she’s not an Asuran, but a human-made Replicator, and therefore does not have a collective to report to? I’m sure it would be short work for Jeannie to program Eva so that she absolutely cannot replicate and would not even try to interface with computers. I mean, honestly, would they treat non-nanite-based robotic life-forms this way?) Ronon asks what they can do, then; not replying. John grows thoughtful.

We see John walking with Ava in a park, asking her how she’s doing. Through their conversation, we learn that, thanks to him, she’s been let go, on the condition that she not work in any science field (among other conditions). (Of course, at this point, I’m thoroughly confused. Why the total turn-around?) She confesses that she’s scared of the future, and, though her emotions are artificial, her fear feels real; she’s never been alone before. She thanks him for checking in on her, saying that she’ll probably never see him again; he tells her to never say never. She leaves — and he vanishes. (Not by beaming technology, either!)

We see John get out of a VR pod. (Another awesome twist!) Through his conversation with Lee, we learn that Ava’s mind has been downloaded to a DR world that Lee has created for her. (Hey, is there a VR Sheppard for her, too?) Ronon asks what happened to her body; Lee says that the bonds between her nanites was broken, reducing them to their base elements. Ronon looks at John, clearly confused; Sheppard translates, “They scrapped her.” (*Snicker*) Ronon asks if they’re heading back; John tells him to go on ahead, saying he has some things to take care of.

John gets out of a taxi and knocks on a door. Dave answers; John gives him a small smile. Dave smiles back, ruefully, and tells him to come in. (Awww. So next time they send letters from Pegasus, John will have people to write back to! Yay!)

If I’d had my druthers, I would have had Sheppard’s brother Dave work for the government and end up helping him, rather than Bates or anyone else; it would have given us a lot of opportunities for more Sheppard backstory (and made for some great angst). And I would have given Nancy a bigger role too, for the same reason. Imagine their faces if they’d learned why John had been out of touch for four years! Ah well. I wonder how true writer Alan McCullough (well, all of the writers, since writing each ep is really a team effort) stayed to Joe Flanigan’s original concept for the episode — all I know is that Flanigan wanted to do a story about Sheppard chasing a Replicator on Earth. I wonder if he ended up as disappointed by the un-Replicator-iness of said Replicator as I was? I mean, it just didn’t seem so terribly menacing and unstoppable as the real deal. Still, I liked Ava, and the ep really was a bit better the second time through. I’m just not in a hurry for a third go-round — except for that McShep moment ….

Next week: “Trio”! (I’ve been eager for this one for quite a while, too — even wrote a post-mission fic about it, inspired solely on Mallozzi’s vague description and a teaser back-stage picture he posted, way back when. Of course, I’m pretty sure that what I wrote will be 99.99% negated by canon. *Cough* ….)

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Wolfen Moondaughter is on the editorial board for the comics industry webzine Sequential Tart for which she has written since late 2001. She’s also written for Newtype USA, contributed to Andy Mangel’s book Animation on DVD, self-published a novel (Memory of the Brightwing). Writing as “Anastasia Witchhazel”, her fantasy short story, “Chase”, is the title story in a homoerotic anthology from Wapshott Press. She’s an artist, too, having done spot illustrations for Dragonlance, a few panels for Barb Lien-Cooper’s webcomic series Gun Street Girl, and private commissions. In her spare time, she’s a fanficcer/fanartist. See more of her work at her site, Wolfen’s Webworld.